System and method for providing a price quotation for a transportation service providing equipment selection capability

ABSTRACT

A method and system for computing the price for shipping goods. The method includes causing a computer to deliver first information to a user prompting the user to enter at the computer information about a rail transportation service for shipment of goods by one or more railcars. Information about a basic pool of railcars is received and filtered based on one or more filtering criteria to produce a filtered pool of railcars. The computer is then caused to deliver second information to the user prompting the user to select at the computer one or more railcars among the filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of goods. A price for the shipment of the goods is then computed at least in part on the basis of the rail transportation service and the one or more characteristics of the railcars in the filtered pool of railcars selected by the user.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method for facilitatingon-line commerce over a computer network such as the Internet. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to a system for enabling acustomer to obtain, over a computer network, a price quotation for arailway transportation service.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Traditionally, price quotations for standard goods and services havebeen given via catalogue, telephone, facsimile and more recentlyelectronically via web pages on global computer networks such as theInternet. Internet service providers are, more and more, connectingusers to the Internet at no cost to the users, thereby making theInternet more accessible to a wide range of users. Many of the usersconnected to the Internet, or having access to other forms of computernetworks are choosing to conduct activities relating to commerce overthese networks. At the same time, merchants are increasingly developingsites on the World Wide Web (or simply “www” or “web”) that customerscan access in order to purchase goods and/or services. It is now fairlycommon for a customer to browse a merchant's catalogue, select a productor service and place an order for the product or service allelectronically over the Internet.

For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,115,690, issued on Sep. 5, 2000 to Wong,describes a software system for providing integratedbusiness-to-business Web commerce and business automation. Theend-to-end Web business is facilitated by using a computing model basedon a single integrated database management system. The software providesa graphical user interface that allows a user to obtain a quote for aproduct based on a merchant's product list. The quote is assigned aquote number and saved in a database management system, and may beretrieved and viewed at a later date by the customer. Customers andvendors can view payment status, previous quotes and product trackinginformation. The contents of the above documents are hereby incorporatedby reference.

In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,817, issued on Jul. 20, 1999 toChristeson et al., describes a Graphical User Interface (GUI) thatallows a user to select optional features relating to a product orservice, and then provides the user with immediate feedback in the formof product availability and price quotations. The GUI allows the user toselect a product/service, as well as to select and unselect a set ofoptional features to customize a desired product/service. The system, onthe basis of the information provided by the user generates a quote forthat product/service and the quote is displayed on the GUI. This systemis directed for use by communication service companies for providingdynamic price quoting to their clients when the latter select particularservice features. The contents of the above documents are herebyincorporated by reference.

In the above-described documents, the user is provided with predefinedgoods and services from which the user makes a selection. Such a methodgenerally provides little choice in terms of the definition of theservice to be provided and, as such, these systems are generallyill-suited for providing price quotations in the field of transportationservices.

In the field of transportation services, systems providing pricequotations based on origin, destination and commodity types have alsobeen developed. U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,667, issued on May 9, 2000 toDanford-Klein et al., describes a rating engine for processing ratingrequests associated with a carrier contract. The system provides a baserating engine for use on a computer that is operable to calculate linerates in response to a rating request by a client application. A ratingserver application performs the necessary calculations regarding arating request and returns the results of the request to a clientapplication. The contents of the above documents are hereby incorporatedby reference.

A deficiency of the systems of the type described in Danford-Klein etal. is that they provide limited flexibility in the price quotationprocess for a transportation service. The price quotations are typicallygeneric quotations given to all customers. In order for a customer toobtain a more customized price quotation, the customer must generallycontact an account manager in the traditional manner via telephone,mail, e-mail or other means. This type of interaction is costly fromboth the customer's end and from the transportation service provider'send since valuable resources in terms of man-hours must be dedicated tothese telephone, mail, e-mail and other contacts.

Consequently there exists a need in the industry to provide an improvedsystem and method for providing a price quotation for a railwaytransportation service that alleviates at least in part the deficienciesof prior art systems and methods.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a broad aspect, the invention provides a method forcomputing the price for shipping goods. The method includes causing acomputer to deliver first information to a user prompting the user toenter at the computer information about a rail transportation servicefor shipment of goods by one or more railcars. Information about a basicpool of railcars is received and filtered based on one or more filteringcriteria to produce a filtered pool of railcars. The computer is thencaused to deliver second information to the user prompting the user toselect at the computer one or more railcars among the filtered pool ofrailcars for the shipment of goods. A price for the shipment of thegoods is then computed at least in part on the basis of the railtransportation service and the one or more characteristics of therailcars in the filtered pool of railcars selected by the user.

Advantageously, the invention allows increased flexibility in thecomputation of the price for the rail transportation service forshipment of goods since it allows the user at the customer's side tocustomize the service request without requiring human interaction fromthe transportation service provider.

Another advantage of the present invention is that it provides the userwith a more relevant list of equipment based on the selected filteringcriteria and thereby facilitates the selection of suitable equipment.

In a specific implementation, the delivering of the first information tothe user is done by displaying information on a screen and the userprovides the information about the rail transportation service throughan input device such as a keyboard, pointing device, touch sensitivesurface and speech recognition unit or any other suitable input device.The information about the rail transportation service includesinformation specifying an origin of the shipment, a destination of theshipment, a commodity being transported and any other suitableinformation. In a non-limiting implementation, the first informationincludes a series of routes among which the user can select at least oneroute.

Optionally, the computer is caused to display to the user on the screenthe price for the shipment of the goods. Alternatively, an e-mailcontaining information indicative of the computed price for the shipmentof the goods is generated and transmitted to the user. Alternativeembodiments include transmitting the price for the shipment of the goodsto the user via snail-mail and facsimile or by any other suitablecommunication device.

In the specific example, the computer delivers second information to theuser to prompt the user to enter at the computer the one or morefiltering criteria for use by the filtering. Alternatively, the one ormore of the filtering criteria are extracted from a user profile file.The filtering criteria include information about ownership of the railcars to be used for the shipment of the goods (such as the party thatowns the railcars), information about the type of goods to be shipped,the type of rail car to use for the shipment of the goods.

In accordance with another broad aspect, the invention provides anapparatus for implementing the above-described method.

In accordance with yet another broad aspect, the invention provides acomputer readable medium including a program element suitable forexecution by a CPU for computing the price for a railway transportationservice for the shipping goods in accordance with the above describedmethod.

In accordance with another broad aspect, the invention provides a serversystem including a computer readable medium including a program elementsuitable for execution by a CPU for computing the price for a railwaytransportation service for the shipping goods in accordance with theabove described method.

In accordance with another broad aspect, the invention provides a methodfor requesting a quote for a price for shipping goods by rail. Themethod includes displaying information at a client system prompting auser to enter at the client system information about a railtransportation service for shipment of goods by one or more railcars.Information is also displayed at the client system prompting the user toenter at the client system one or more filtering criteria. Theinformation about the rail transportation service for shipment of goodsby one or more railcars and the one or more filtering criteria are sentto a server system. The client system receives from the server systeminformation about a filtered pool of rail cars produced by filtering abasic pool of rail ears on the basis of the one or more filteringcriteria. Information is displayed at the client system information tothe user prompting the user to select at the client system one or morerail cars among the filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of thegoods. The information about the one or more rail cars selected by theuser for the shipment of the goods is sent to the server system. Theclient system then receives from the server system information about theprice for the shipment of the goods and displays to the user at theclient system the information about the price for the shipment of thegoods.

In a specific implementation, the information about the railtransportation service includes information specifying an origin of theshipment, a destination of the shipment, a commodity being transportedand any other suitable information. In a non-limiting implementation,the first information includes a series of routes among which the usercan select at least one route.

In a non-limiting example, the filtering criteria may includeinformation about ownership of the rail cars to be used for the shipmentof the goods (such as the party that owns the railcars), informationabout the type of goods to be shipped and the type of rail car to usefor the shipment of the goods or any other suitable criteria.

In a specific implementation, the client system and the server systemcommunicate via the Internet.

In accordance with another broad aspect, the invention provides anapparatus for implementing the above-described method.

In accordance with yet another broad aspect, the invention provides acomputer readable medium including a program element suitable forexecution by a CPU for computing the price for a railway transportationservice for the shipping goods in accordance with the above describedmethod.

In accordance with another broad aspect, the invention provides a serversystem including a computer readable medium including a program elementsuitable for execution by a CPU for computing the price for a railwaytransportation service for the shipping goods in accordance with theabove described method.

In accordance with a broad aspect, the invention provides a computerreadable storage medium containing a program element for execution by aCPU. The program element includes a first program component for causinga computer to deliver first information to a user prompting the user toenter at the computer information about a rail transportation servicefor shipment of goods by one or more railcars. The program element alsoincludes a second program component for receiving information about abasic pool of railcars. The second program component implements a filterfor filtering the basic pool of railcars based on one or more filteringcriteria to produce a filtered pool of railcars. The second programcomponent causes the computer to deliver second information to the userprompting the user to select at the computer one or more railcars amongthe filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of goods. The programelement also includes a third program component for computing a pricefor the shipment of the goods at least in part on the basis of theinformation about the rail transportation service and one or morecharacteristics of the railcars in the filtered pool of railcarsselected by the user.

In a first non-limiting implementation, the CPU resides on a servermachine and the computer is a client machine in a network arrangementwith the server machine. The first program element component generatescontrol messages to the client machine to cause the client machine todisplay the first information and the second information to the user.The control messages may be HTTP messages or any and the client machinedisplays the first and second information to the user through a browser.

In a second non-limiting implementation, the CPU resides in thecomputer.

In accordance to another broad aspect, the invention provides a serversystem for computing a quote for a price for a railway transportationservice for shipping goods. The server system includes a computerreadable storage medium storing a program element for execution by a CPUof the type described above.

In accordance to another broad aspect, the invention provides a clientserver system for computing a quote for a price for a railwaytransportation service for shipping goods in accordance with theabove-described method.

Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparentto those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the followingdescription of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction withthe accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A detailed description of examples of implementation of the presentinvention is provided hereinbelow with reference to the followingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic railway pricequotation/ordering system suitable for providing price quotations for arailway transportation service in accordance with a non-limitingimplementation of the invention, including a merchant computing entity104, a network 106, and a customer entity 102 having a plurality ofcomputing units;

FIG. 2 a is a block diagram depicting one of the customer computingunits of customer entity 102 shown in FIG. 1 in accordance with anon-limiting implementation of the invention;

FIG. 2 b is a block diagram depicting the merchant computing system 120shown in FIG. 1 in accordance with a non-limiting implementation of theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a high level flow diagram of the process for electronicallyproviding price quotations for a railway transportation service inaccordance with a non-limiting specific example of implementation of thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 depicts a user interface for allowing a user to logon or toregister with the electronic railway price quotation/ordering system 100in accordance with a specific example of implementation of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a customer registration process for theelectronic railway price quotation/ordering system 100 in accordancewith a specific example of implementation of the present invention;

FIG. 6 depicts a user interface for allowing a user to select theelectronic railway price quotation/ordering system from a set of choicesin accordance with a specific example of implementation of the presentinvention;

FIG. 7 depicts a user interface displaying a “railway transportationordering” page 700 of the electronic railway price quotation/orderingsystem in accordance with a specific example of implementation of thepresent invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates a graphical representation of two different routesbetween Montreal and Dallas on a geographical map;

FIG. 9 shows a user interface depicting a “route display” page 900 ofthe electronic railway price quotation/ordering system in accordancewith a specific example of implementation of the present invention;

FIG. 10 shows a user interface depicting an “equipment selection” page1001 of the electronic railway price quotation/ordering system inaccordance with a specific example of implementation of the presentinvention;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram depicting a process for generating a pricequote for a rail transportation service in accordance with a specificexample of implementation of the present invention.

In the drawings, embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way ofexample. It is to be expressly understood that the description anddrawings are only for the purposes of illustration and as an aid tounderstanding, and are not intended to be a definition of the limits ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description below refers to a railway pricequotation/ordering system where the transportation services provided areoffered by railway carriers using trains and railcars. The skilledperson in the art will appreciate that the system described herein belowmay also be applied to transportation services other than railwaytransportation services. For example, other transportation services thatprovide for the transportation of goods from an origin location to adestination location include transportation via trucks, boats, airplanesand combinations of trucks, boats, airplanes and railways.

Shown in FIG. 1 is an electronic railway price quotation/ordering system100 in accordance with a specific example of implementation of thepresent invention for providing price quotations for a railwaytransportation service. As shown, the railway price quotation/orderingsystem 100 includes a customer entity 102 and a merchant entity 104. Forthe purposes of this specification, merchant entity 104 is a railwaycarrier capable of providing railway transportation services Thecustomer entity 102 includes a plurality of customer computing units112, 114 and 116 and the merchant entity 104 includes a merchantcomputing system 120. The merchant computing system 120 and the customercomputing units 112, 114 and 116 are interconnected through a network106.

The network 106 is a data communication network interconnecting thecustomer entity 102 and the merchant computing system 120. In a specificexample of implementation, the network 106 is a public network. In theillustrated implementation, the data communication network 106 isembodied in the Internet. It is to be noted that the data communicationnetwork 106 may be implemented as a network other than the Internet suchas an interactive television network, a private network such as anIntranet, LAN, WAN, VPN or any other suitable network.

The customer entity 102 includes potential customers of the railwayprice quotation/ordering system 100. In the example shown, the customerentity 102 comprises three computing units 112, 114 and 116 eachassociated to a respective user 122, 124 and 126. The computing units112, 114 and 116 are generally in the form of personal computers,although other types of computing units may be used including laptops,notebooks, hand-held computers, set top boxes, and the likes. Thecomputing units 112, 114 and 116 may be connected to one another over anIntranet or may be stand-alone computing units. For example, computingunits 112 and 114 are connected over an Intranet 118 and computing unit116 is a stand-alone unit. Each of the computing units 112, 114 and 116is provided with a connection to network 106. The connection may be apermanent connection through a server at the customer's premises, oralternatively, a given computing unit may occasionally connect to thenetwork 106 through the use of a dial-up connection using suitabledevices such as a modem for example. It will be readily appreciated thatcustomer entity 102 may include less than three computing units as wellas more than three computing units.

The merchant computing system 120 and the computing units 112, 114 and116 include tools for facilitating on-line commerce transactions betweenthe customer entity 102 and the merchant entity 104. Specifically, theelectronic railway price quotation/ordering system 100 described aboveallows a customer to obtain a price quotation for a certain specificrailway transportation service over computer network 106 and to orderthe specific railway transportation service on the basis of the pricequotation. The merchant entity 104 is enabled to provide a pricequotation for the customer's requested transportation service on thebasis of criteria provided by the customer.

Customer Computing Unit 112

FIG. 2A depicts a block diagram of customer computing unit 112. Thestructure and functionality of customer computing units 114 and 116 areidentical to that of customer computing unit 112 and as such will not bedescribed herein. As shown, customer computing unit 112 comprises aprocessor 202, a memory 206 and a network I/O 204 (input/output) foraccessing network 106. The network I/O 204 can be implemented, forexample, as a dial-up modem or as a permanent network connection. Theprocessor 202, which can be a CPU, is adapted to execute programelements stored in the memory 206 for performing certain functions. Morespecifically, customer computing unit 112 runs an operating system 208that supports multiple applications. The operating system 208 ispreferably a multitasking operating system that allows simultaneousexecution of multiple applications in a graphical windowing environment.The memory 206 also includes a browser program element 210. As will bediscussed further on in the specification, in a non-limitingimplementation, information regarding a desired railway transportationservice, a series of routes between an origin location and a destinationlocation and a cost for the railway transportation service is displayedthrough browser program element 210. When the browser program element210 is launched, it is executed by the processor 202 atop the operatingsystem 208. The customer computing unit 112 may also include e-mailsoftware components (not shown) as well as additional components andmodules. These have been omitted from the description for the purpose ofclarity

Merchant Computing System 120

The merchant computing system 120 includes one or more computer serversand one or more computing apparatuses, and as such includes a serversystem. The system includes program elements 218 allowing the merchantentity 104 to manage a user interface that is able to be provided to acomputing unit (such as 112) of the customer entity 102 such that thecustomer at computing unit 112 can obtain a price quote for a certainrailway transportation service over network 106.

FIG. 2B shows a block diagram depicting a schematic diagram of themerchant computing system 120. As depicted, the merchant computingsystem 120 comprises a processor 212, such as a CPU, a memory 216 and anetwork I/O 214 (input/output) for connection to the network 106 (shownin FIG. 1). The network I/O 214 is preferably implemented as a permanentnetwork connection, although dial up connections may be suitable incertain embodiments. For example, if the merchant computing system 120interacts with the customer computing units 112, 114 and 116 via e-mail,then a dial-up connection may be suitable.

In a non-limiting example of implementation, the electronic railwayprice quotation/ordering system 100 has a permanent network connectionto network 106. For clarity, it is this non-limiting example ofimplementation that will be described in the rest of the specification.

The processor 212 is adapted to execute program elements 218 stored inthe memory 216 for performing various functions. The memory 216 also hasa data portion 220 including a customer database 222, a routing database224, an equipment database 226 and a commodity database 228. It will bereadily appreciated that the merchant computing system 120 may includeadditional components and modules that have been omitted from thedescription for the purpose of clarity.

Customer database 222 includes data elements associated to customers ofthe merchant entity. Some non-limiting examples of data elements in thedatabase include: a customer identifier, a password, a customer address,customer account information and potential discount rates associated tothe customer. It is within the scope of the invention for the customerdatabase 222 to include information regarding equipment (i.e. railcars)belonging to specific customers. As will be described further on in thespecification, the customer database 222 is accessed by the merchantcomputing system 120 when a customer logs on to the merchant entity'swebsite, or when specific customer profile information is needed. Anon-limiting example of implementation of customer database 222 is shownbelow.

TABLE 1 Customer database Customer Identifier Password Customer addressDiscount rate Customer 1 12345 1234 Green Street 10% - Overall HOH OHO20% - For wheat only 15% - For the use of refrigerated cars Customer 223456 4321 Blue Avenue 15% - Overall XOX OXO Customer 3 34567 9876Yellow Drive 10% - for flatbeds HAH AHA

Routing database 224 includes data elements associated to segmentsavailable in the railway system used by railway carriers, each segmentbeing described by a respective origin junction and destination junctionpair. In a non-limiting implementation, the destination junctions aredestinations that can be reached from the origin junction withouttransferring railway carriers. Optionally, the routing database includesthe distances between the origin junctions and the destination junctionsas well as an average travel time between the origin junctions and thedestination junctions. The routing database 224 includes segmentsbelonging to the merchant entity 104 as well as railway segmentsbelonging to other railway carriers. Therefore, the routing databaseincludes the owner associated to each of the segments listed in therouting database 224. It should also be understood that segments caninclude portions of a route that require transportation other than byrailway. A non-limiting example of a routing database is shown below.

TABLE 2 Routing database Distance Jct between Time between OriginDestination Railway Jct origin destination Jct (km) Jct (hrs) factorfactor Carrier Montreal Buffalo 300 2.5 1.6 1.3 Merchant 1 MontrealHuntington 70 0.7 1.6 1.7 Merchant 2 Buffalo Baltimore 250 2.1 2.4 2.2Merchant 1 Buffalo Memphis 1300 10 2.4 1.9 Merchant 3 Baltimore St Louis900 8.5 2.7 1.8 Merchant 2 St Louis Dallas 550 4.8 3.5 2.3 Merchant 2Memphis Dallas 350 3.2 4.0 2.3 Merchant 3

Optionally, although not show in the table above, each segment may alsobe associated to an ownership factor data element allowing to conditionthe cost on the basis of the ownership of the segment. The ownershipfactor for a given segment may further be dependent on the customermaking the request.

The equipment database 226 includes a plurality of records associated torespective railcars that can be used to transport goods from an originlocation to a destination location. The records include a plurality offields that include data elements indicating the ownership of therailcar as well as the route segments on which that piece of equipmentcan be used. As mentioned with respect to the customer database, as avariant the ownership of the railcars belonging to the customers isindicated in the customer database 222. A non-limiting example ofimplementation of equipment database 226 is shown below:

TABLE 3 Equipment database Price Equip- Carrying Ownership Chargeableper ment Capacity Ownership Factor services mile Flatbed 2 tons Merchant1 for all Cleaning 15.95 Entity Unloading Flatbed 1.5 tons  Customer 0.5for Cleaning 15.95 2 “Customer 2” Unloading 1 for everyone else Flatbed2 tons Railway 0.8 for Cleaning 15.95 Carrier “Customer 1” Unloading 21.5 for everyone else Tanker 5 tons Merchant 1 Cleaning 20.00 EntityUnloading Tanker 3 tons Customer 0.5 for Cleaning 20.00 1 “Customer 1”Unloading 1 for everyone else Boxcar 2 tons Merchant 1 Cleaning 5.95Entity Unloading Boxcar 3.5 tons  Customer 0.75 for Cleaning 5.95 3“Customer 3” Unloading 1 for everyone else Hopper 6 tons Merchant 1Cleaning 17.99 Entity Unloading

Finally, the commodity database 228 includes data elements correspondingto commodities potentially selected by the customer. Specifically, thecommodity database 228 includes data elements corresponding to eachcommodity including chargeable services, a price per mile and a priceper weight for transportation. Optionally, each commodity may also beassociated to a list of customers who have a high likelihood oftransporting a given commodity. A non-limiting example of implementationof commodity database 228 is shown below:

TABLE 4 Commodity database Customers who transport Price per Price perChargeable Commodity commodity weight mile services Wheat Customer 112.00/ton 2.00 Wood Customer 1  6.00/ton 1.99 Customer 2 PetroleumCustomer 1 20.00/ton 13.00 Customer 3 Perishable food Customer 422.00/ton 7.00 Refrigeration

It is to be expressly understood that other formats for each of theabove noted databases are possible without detracting from the spirit ofthe invention. It should also be expressly understood that other datafields including additional data elements could also be included andomitted without detracting from the spirit of the invention.

The use of each of these databases will be described in greater detailfurther on in the specification.

System Overview

With reference to FIG. 3, the overall interaction between a customer atthe customer entity 102 and the merchant entity 104 is described inrelation to the railway price quotation/ordering system 100 according toan example of implementation of the present invention.

Firstly, at step 1000 the customer accesses the merchant entity's securewebsite by either entering a user ID and password, or by registering asa new customer. Once the customer's identity has been verified by themerchant computing system 120, the customer is granted access to themerchant entity's website.

At step 2000, the customer is presented with a graphical user interfaceindicative of the merchant entity's home page. The graphical userinterface provides a number of links to various services and productsoffered by the merchant entity 104. In the context of the railway pricequotation/ordering system 100, a link to the railway pricequotation/ordering module is provided. The user selects the railwayprice quotation/ordering module link from the plurality of links throughan input device such as a pointing device, keyboard, touch sensitivesurface, speech recognition unit or other suitable input device.

At step 3000, the graphical user interface includes a set of data fieldsthat are modifiable by the customer for specifying a desired railwaytransportation service. The customer is enabled to enter via the userinterface the origin location and the destination location of therailway transportation service desired. The customer is also enabled toenter the type and weight of the commodity, which is to be transportedbetween the origin location and the destination location. Optionally,the customer is enabled to enter the preferred dates for which thetransportation service is required. The dates may include an hour, day,month, year or season. Once the above-described information is provided,the customer submits this information to the merchant entity 104 vianetwork 106.

At step 4000, the program element 218 at the merchant computing system120 receives and processes the origin location and the destinationlocation submitted by the customer to derive a list of transportationroutes between the origin location and destination location. Themerchant computing system 120 then forwards the list of transportationroutes to the customer's computing unit, which displays the routes tothe customer through a graphical user interface. The customer is thenenabled to select one of the routes for the transportation servicethrough the user interface using an input device such as a pointingdevice, keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech recognition unit orother suitable input device.

At step 5000, the program element 218 at the merchant entity processesthe commodity type and the weight information to derive a list ofsuitable equipment for transporting the commodity. The merchantcomputing system 120 then forwards the list of equipment to thecustomer's computing unit which in turn displays the list of equipmentto the customer through the graphical user interface. The customer isthen enabled to select the desired equipment to be used duringtransportation from a list of possible railcars through the userinterface using an input device such as a pointing device, keyboard,touch sensitive surface, speech recognition unit or other suitable inputdevice. Optionally, the graphical user interface may also enable thecustomer to select customized chargeable services and submit theselections to the merchant entity 104.

It will be readily apparent to the person skilled in the art that theorder of steps 4000 and 5000 may be interchanged or, alternatively,steps 4000 and 5000 may be performed concurrently without detractingfrom the spirit of the invention.

At step 6000, the program element 218 at the merchant computing system120 generates a price quotation at least in part on the basis of theorigin location, destination location, weight and type of commodityselected at step 3000, the route selected at step 4000, and theequipment ownership and chargeable services selected at step 5000.

Optionally, at step 7000, the merchant computing system 120 appliesmarketing and promotional information in order to effect a priceadjustment of the price quotation generated at step 6000.

At step 8000, the merchant computing system 120 then forwards the pricequotation to the customer's computing unit, which displays the pricequotation to the customer through a graphical user interface.

At step 9000, the customer is enabled to accept the price quotation orreject the price quotation. Optionally, the customer is enabled to savethe price quotation in a database located at the merchant computingsystem and delay making a decision until a later time. In such animplementation, the price quotation provided at step 8000 is associatedto a time delay during which the price quotation is valid.

Each of the above mentioned steps will be described in greater detailhereinbelow.

Login or Register/Create a Customer Profile (Step 1000)

In order to access the electronic railway price quotation/orderingsystem 100, a customer at computing unit 112 invokes browser 210 andenters the merchant entity's specific network address. It should beexpressly understood that a customer may be a user of any computing unitwithin customer entity 102 that accesses the railway pricequotation/ordering system 100. For the purposes of this description, theuser 122 at customer computing unit 112 will be called customer 122 toindicate that user 122 is ordering a service from merchant entity 104.In a non-limiting example of implementation, once customer 122 hasentered the merchant entity's network address, the browser 210 displaysa webpage on the customer computing unit 112. In such an implementation,the customer is first presented with a “login/registration” webpage. Anon-limiting example of a “login/registration” webpage 400 is shown inFIG. 4.

Prior to being able to access the railway price quotation/orderingsystem, the customer either logs into the merchant entity's“login/registration” page 400 by entering a userID and password, oralternatively registers as a new user of the railway pricequotation/ordering service. If the customer is a “registered customer”,meaning that the customer has previously registered and has beenapproved by the merchant entity, then the customer simply provides themerchant entity with a userID and an associated password each time thecustomer desires to access the railway price quotation/ordering system100. As can be seen in FIG. 4, in a non-limiting example ofimplementation, a registered user enters the userID and associatedpassword into customer modifiable data fields 402 and 404 respectively,and then clicks the “go” button 406 in order to submit this informationto merchant entity 104. It is this login information that allows themerchant entity 104 to access the customer profile in the customerdatabase 222.

When a “registered customer” enters a userID and a password, themerchant entity 104 receives this login information and processes itwith respect to the customer database 222. More specifically, theprocessor 212 accesses the customer database 222 to locate the entrycorresponding to the userID. If no corresponding entry is found in thecustomer database 222, an error message is returned to the customer. Ifa corresponding entry is found, the password in the entry in thecustomer database 222 is compared to the password provided in the logininformation. If a match is not found, an error message is returned tothe customer. If a match is found, the customer is successfullyidentified and is granted access to the website.

If the customer accessing the “login/registration” page 400 is notregistered, the user launches the registration process by selecting acorresponding link to a “registration” webpage. The user can select the“registration” webpage through an input device such as a pointingdevice, keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech recognition unit orother suitable input device. In the non-limiting example ofimplementation depicted in FIG. 4, customer 122 launches the“registration” webpage by selecting the “register” button 408.

With reference to FIG. 5, the registration process will be describedbelow. At step 502, customer 122 launches the “registration” webpage (noFigure), and customer computing unit 112 downloads a registration moduleimplemented by program element 218 (shown in FIG. 2B) from the merchantcomputing system 120. The registration module automatically launches toaid customer 122 in the completion of the online application forregistration. In a specific example of implementation, the registrationmodule is configured to provide step-by-step instructions. At step 504,customer 122 fills out the registration form that includes variousfields relating to personal and financial matters, such as company name,address, telephone number, credit card numbers, bank affiliations, andthe like. Customer 122 also provides data related to preferred paymentmethods, a userID and an associated password. Optionally, the“registration” webpage may include data fields prompting the customer toenter information about railcars that are owned by the customer. Some ofthese information fields may be omitted and others added withoutdetracting from the spirit of the invention.

It is possible that customer computing units 112 and 114 will have thesame customer registration information since they are connected via anintranet 118. In a non-limiting example, computing units 112 and 114belong to a single company and the registration information provided tothe merchant entity 104 pertains to the company and not to theindividual users of computing units 112 and 114. As such, both customers122 and 124 may use the same userID and password when accessing therailway price quotation/ordering system 100.

As a variant, it is possible that the registration between the customerand the merchant entity may be effected through the completion of a formthat is transmitted to the merchant entity 104 by mail, fax or othersuitable transmission method. These methods will be readily apparent tothe reader skilled in the art.

Once the application for registration is completed, at step 506 theapplication for registration is submitted to the merchant entity 104.The registration module facilitates this communication between thecustomer computing unit 112 and the merchant entity 104. Theregistration module itself includes the necessary routing information todirect the application over the network 106 to the merchant computingsystem 120. At step 508, the merchant entity 104 reviews the applicationfor registration to determine whether customer 122 should be permittedto register and whether any information is missing. If registration isdenied, for example information is missing, the customer is alreadyregistered, or the customer requesting registration does not havepermission to do so, at step 510 the merchant entity 104 returns amessage to the customer 122 indicating that the application forregistration has been denied. Conversely, if the application is granted,at step 512 the merchant entity 104 may return a message indicating thatthe application for registration is successful.

Assuming that the application for registration is granted, at step 512the merchant computing system 120 at the merchant entity 104 creates acustomer account entry in customer database 222 (as described and shownpreviously in the specification). The customer database 222 includesinformation pertaining to the customers of the merchant entity 104. In anon-limiting example of implementation, for each customer entity, anentry is provided including various information data elements associatedto the user. Amongst others, each entry includes a customer identifierand a corresponding password. Optionally, each customer identifier isassociated to a respective customer profile including customercharacteristics that may be used by program elements 218 to conditionthe price quotation to be generated. Such information may includewithout being limited to, information indicating a discount rate towhich the customer is entitled. This will be discussed in more detail inthe section entitled “marketing options and “adjustment of pricequotation”. In accordance with a non-limiting implementation, until themerchant entity 104 has reviewed the customer's registrationinformation, the “new customer” has only limited interactioncapabilities with the railway price quotation/ordering system 100.

As a variant to the electronic railway transportation registrationsystem 100, the accessing of a registration page is not required inorder for a customer to access the merchant entity's homepage or the“railway transportation ordering” page of the electronic railway pricequotation/ordering system 100. Under this variant, an unregisteredcustomer can skip step 1000 and access the “railway transportationordering” page directly, so as to be able to enter information regardinga specific railway transportation service that is desired and obtain aprice quote for that service. If the user desires to accept the pricequote, it is at this stage that the user completes the registrationprocess in order to provide the merchant entity 104 with informationregarding the customer.

Selecting the Railway Price Quotation/Ordering System (Step 2000)

Once the customer has been successfully identified by the login process,or has successfully completed the registration form, customer computingunit 112 downloads a module representative of the merchant entity's“home” site for displaying on the screen of the customer computing unit112. FIG. 6 shows a simplified non-limiting example of the merchantentity's “home” site 600. The “home” site is implemented by programelement 218 from the merchant computing system 120 and automaticallylaunches to aid customer 122. The railway price quotation/orderingsystem 100 is part of an electronic-commerce platform provided by themerchant entity 104 to support various electronic-commerce activities.As can be seen, the “home” site 600 provides a number of links tovarious services and products offered by the merchant entity 104. In thecontext of the railway price quotation/ordering system 100, a link 602to the railway price quotation/ordering module is provided. The merchantentity's “home” site may also include a link entitled “view previousprice quotes” which provide customers with the ability to viewpreviously accepted quotes listed by such things as “quotes bycustomer”, “quotes by account” and “quotes by contact”.

In the non-limiting example of implementation shown in FIG. 4, in orderto request a price quote for a railway transportation service, thecustomer 122 selects the “price quote and ordering” button 602 from themerchant entity's “home” site 600. This is done through an input devicesuch as a pointing device, keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speechrecognition unit or other suitable input device. Once selected, the“home” site module 600 facilitates the communication of this choice tothe merchant entity 104. The “home” site module itself includes thenecessary routing information to direct the choice selected by customer122 to the merchant computing system 120 over network 106.

Select Origin Location, Destination Location and Commodity (Step 3000)

After selecting the “price quote and ordering” link 602 from themerchant entity's “home” site 600, a “railway transportation ordering”page is launched at customer computing unit 112. The “railwaytransportation ordering” page is implemented by program element 218(shown in FIG. 2 b) at the merchant computing system 120. The programelement 218 generates control messages to the customer computing unit112 to cause the customer computing unit 112 to display information inthe form of “railway transportation ordering” page to the customer. In aspecific example of implementation the control messages are HTTPmessages. The “railway transportation ordering” page automaticallylaunches to aid customer 122 in filling out the customer modifiable datafields located on the “railway transportation ordering” page, therebyprompting the user to enter information regarding a desired railtransportation service. In a specific example of implementation, the“railway transportation ordering” page is configured to providestep-by-step instructions. In a non-limiting example of implementation,the “railway transportation ordering” page is a graphical user interfaceimplementing a form that is modifiable by the customer and which issuitable to be displayed on the screen of the customer computer unit 112by browser program element 210. Shown in FIG. 7, is a non-limitingexample of the “railway transportation ordering” page 700. In anon-limiting example of implementation, the customer 122 fills out thecustomer-modifiable data fields in order to enter information about arail transportation service for the shipment of goods, such as a desiredorigin location, destination location, commodity type and commodityweight. The shipment of goods can be transported by one or morerailcars.

As can be seen in FIG. 7, there are a set 702 of customer modifiabledata fields for the origin location, a set 704 of customer modifiabledata fields for the destination location, and a set 706 of customermodifiable data fields for the commodity. Optionally, although not shownin FIG. 7, the graphical user interface can include customer modifiabledata fields relating to customer account information and preferred datesof transportation. Some of these information fields may be omitted andother information fields added without detracting from the spirit of theinvention.

It will be readily apparent that there are numerous ways for the user toprovide the information regarding the origin location, the destinationlocation, and the commodity. The user can enter the information aboutthe desired rail transportation service into the computer modifiabledata fields through an input device selected from the group consistingof keyboard, pointing device, touch sensitive surface and speechrecognition unit.

In a first non-limiting example of implementation, in order to specifythe origin location and the destination location of transportation, thecustomer can enter the name of the country, city and street address.These are shown as customer modifiable data fields 708, 710, 712 and 714on FIG. 7.

Alternatively, in a second non-limiting example of implementation, thecustomer may enter a zip code, shown as data fields 716 and 718 in FIG.7 (the zip code can be of any number of digits such as the Canadian 6digit zip code, the U.S. 5 digit zip code or any other type of zipcode).

In a third non-limiting example of implementation, the customer mayenter a standard point location code (SPLC), data fields 720 and 722, ora freight station accounting code (FSAC).

Optionally, the customer modifiable fields depicted in FIG. 7 may beenabled/disabled on the basis of the information already entered by theuser. For instance, if the user specifies the origin location with anSPLC, then the city, country and zip field may be automatically disabledby the user interface. Similarly, if the user specifies the originlocation with the city, country or with the zip code, the SPLC may alsobe automatically disabled. The same type of feature may be provided bythe user interface for the destination location and for the commodityinformation.

It is within the scope of the invention for the merchant entity 104 tobe able to provide an intermodal transportation service based on theorigin location and destination location entered by the customer. Forexample, if the customer enters a zip code to specify the originlocation and there is no train station within the region covered by thatzip code, then the merchant entity can use another form oftransportation, such as a truck, to transport the commodity from thecustomer's origin location to the closest train station. Similarly, thecustomer may specify the desired destination location with a zip codethat covers a region that does not include a train station. In thesesituations the merchant entity will provide an alternate form oftransportation from the origin location to the closest train station andfrom the terminal train station to the desired destination location. Assuch, the merchant entity is able to provide a door-to-doortransportation service to the customer.

The merchant entity 104 is able to calculate the distance to the closesttrain station based on the zip code, or other origin locationinformation provided by the customer.

Although not shown in FIG. 7, in a fourth non-limiting example ofimplementation, the customer may simply select the desired originlocation and destination location from a pull-down list of possiblelocations. Such a list may include a list of the origin/destinationlocations available for the railway transportation service.

Although not shown in FIG. 7, in a fifth non-limiting example ofimplementation, the graphical user interface may include an interactivemap allowing the customer to select a desired location of origin anddestination by activating the selections through an input device such asa pointing device, keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech recognitionunit or other suitable input device. In this alternative implementation,the interactive map depicts a plurality of locations at which origin anddestination location are depicted and associated to links allowingselection by the user.

Other suitable embodiments for selecting origin and destinationlocations through a user interface are possible without detracting fromthe spirit of the invention.

The desired commodity, as well as the weight or volume of the commodityto be transported, may also be specified in various ways. The type ofcommodity can be selected from the set consisting of, but not limitedto, liquids, solids, logs, granular, grain type, commodity type,explosives, and hazardous materials. As a non-limiting example, thecommodity may be specified by entering into data fields 724 and 726 thecommodity's common written name and the weight of the commodity can beentered using well known units of measure (UOM), such as pounds,kilograms or cubic inches. Alternatively, the user may specify thecommodity by entering the commodity's seven digit STCC code (standardtransportation commodity classification) or a subset of the commodity'sseven digit STCC into data field 728. It will be apparent that althoughthis specific implementation describes the transportation of acommodity, any good suitable for rail transportation may be specifiedwithout detracting from the spirit of the invention.

It is within the scope of the invention for the graphical user interfaceof the “railway transportation ordering” page 700 to be configured suchas to be customer specific, thereby including specific informationregarding the customer currently accessing the page. For example, if itis known from the customer profile that customer 122 only transportswheat and wood, then in the commodity selection area 706, only thechoice of wheat and corn will be available to the customer.Alternatively, if it is known from the customer profile that customer122 usually transports wheat from Montreal to Dallas, then defaultvalues for the customer modifiable fields may be set accordingly such asto reduce the time required for the user to enter the information. Inthe specific example shown in FIG. 7, the origin location 702, thedestination location 704, and the commodity 706 are set respectively to“Montreal”, “Dallas” and “Wheat”.

Once the necessary information has been entered into the “railwaytransportation ordering” page 700, the information entered into thecustomer modifiable data fields is submitted to the merchant entity 104.This may be accomplished through an input device such as a pointingdevice, keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech recognition unit orother suitable input device. In the specific example shown in FIG. 7,the customer submits the information entered into the graphical userinterface by selecting the “submit” button 730 with a pointer device.The “railway transportation ordering” page 700 includes routinginformation to direct the information entered by customer 122 to themerchant entity 104. As such, the customer computing unit 112 isoperative to communicate with the merchant entity 104. It should benoted that the price quote computed later on can be based at least inpart on the information supplied by the customer at the “railwaytransportation ordering” page 700 about the rail transportation servicedesired.

Select a Route (Step 4000)

Upon receipt of the customer's desired origin location and destinationlocation, the program element 218 of the merchant computing system 120is responsive to the desired origin location and destination locationand accesses routing database 224 (FIG. 2B). As explained above, therouting database 224 stores a list of segments in the form of {originjunction, destination junction} pairs for railway routes. The processor212 applies a route determination algorithm implemented by programelement 218 to the information stored in the routing database 224 withrespect to the customer's desired origin location and destinationlocation. The route determination algorithm determines a series ofcombinations of segments that can be joined so as to form a routebetween the origin location and the destination location. Identifying acombination of segments between an origin location and a destinationlocation based on predefined segments may be done using any suitablemethod.

In accordance with a variant of the invention, a segment may be traveledby a carrier other than a train such as for example a truck, a boat,airplane or any other suitable vehicle. For example, if thetransportation service desired by the customer requires a truck totransport goods from the specific origin location to a train station inthe area, then the journey by truck to the train station can beconsidered a first segment, and the journey by train can include one ormore additional segments. In addition, the final segment can be ajourney by truck from a termination train station to the specificdestination location specified by the customer. All segments of theroute include respective origin location and destination locations andin general, the destination of the first segment coincides with theorigin of the second segment, the destination of the second segmentcoincides with the origin of the third segment and so on.

In this variant, the customer enters into the “railway transportationordering” page an origin location, which is information conveying acharacteristic of the first segment of the transportation route. As aspecific example, the zip code entered by the customer identifying anorigin location is a characteristic of the first segment of the route.It should be understood that other information conveying an originlocation of the first segment are included within the scope of theinvention, such as country, city, and street address. The user may alsoenter at the “railway transportation ordering” page informationconveying a characteristic of the second segment of the journey, such asorigin location of the second segment. As a specific example, the zipcode or other origin location identifier entered by the customer toidentify the origin location of the first segment can also convey theorigin location of the second segment. For example, with the originlocation of first segment, the program element 218 at the merchantentity 104 can identify the closest train station to the origin locationand as such identify the origin location of the second segment. In thiscase, the train station is the origin location of the second segment. Itis to be appreciated that although in this example the informationconveying an origin location of the second segment is derived from theinformation conveying the origin location of the first segment, it iswithin the scope of the invention for the customer to provideinformation conveying the origin location of the second segmentseparately from that of the first segment. In addition, the customer mayenter information identifying the destination of one or all of thesegments contained within the route. The customer enters informationconveying one or more characteristic of the first segment and the secondsegment through an input device selected in the group consisting ofkeyboard, pointing device, touch sensitive surface and speechrecognition unit.

Generally, two or more routes are derived for a given origin locationand a destination location requested by a customer. However, it will bereadily appreciated that for certain origin locations and destinationlocations only one existing route between an origin location and adestination location will exist amongst the segments in the routedatabase 224 and such cases remain within the scope of the invention. Itis to be appreciated that the series of combinations of segments formingroutes between the origin location and the destination location need notbe an exhausted list of all possible routes between the origin locationand the destination location but may be a subset thereof withoutdetracting from the spirit of the invention. The invention is notlimited to the manner in which the subset of routes from the list ofpossible routes is determined.

An example of interaction between customer 122 and merchant entity 104will better illustrate the above. On the “railway transportationordering” page 700, customer 122 selects Montreal as the origin locationand Dallas as the destination location. The merchant entity 104 receivesthe selected origin location (Montreal) and the destination location(Dallas) and applies the algorithm to the information stored in therouting database 224 to derive possible routes between Montreal andDallas. From the routing database 224, shown in table 2 above, there areat least two routes possible between Montreal and Dallas, namely:

Route 1

Montreal to Buffalo using merchant 1 followed by

Buffalo to Baltimore using merchant 1 followed by

Baltimore to St Louis using merchant 2 followed by

St Louis to Dallas using merchant 2.

Route 2

Montreal to Buffalo using merchant 1 followed by

Buffalo to Memphis using merchant 3 followed by

Memphis to Dallas using merchant 3.

FIG. 8 illustrates a graphical representation of these two routes on ageographical map. The series of routes between the origin location andthe destination location is displayed in the form of paths drawn on thegraphical representation of a geographical map.

Program element 218 is operative for interfacing with a database, suchas routing database 224, that maps information identifying routesegments and identifying the respective merchant railway carriers thatown the route segments in order to generate a series of routes havingsegments owned by a certain owner.

In a specific example of implementation, the algorithm deriving the listof routes from the origin location to the destination location is biasedon the basis of the ownership of the segments of the routes. Forexample, the algorithm deriving the list of routes from the originlocation to the destination location can make use of the ownership ofthe segments in the routing database 224 to bias the list of routes tofavor railway routes having segments belonging to the merchant entity104.

For example, in cases where the merchant entity 104 can transport acommodity from the specified origin location to the specifieddestination location without the use of railway routes having segmentsbelonging to a railway carrier other than the merchant entity 104, theroutes that use the rail segments belonging to the merchant entity 104are provided to the customer for selection. For example, when the originis Montreal and the destination is Vancouver, and there are seven (7)different routes that can be taken between Montreal and Vancouver andtwo (2) of the routes require only railway segments belonging to themerchant entity, and the remaining five (5) routes require the use ofrail segments belonging to a railway carrier other than the merchantentity, then only the two routes that use railway segments belonging tothe merchant entity are displayed to the customer. In another example,the routes that use railway routes having at least one segment belongingto the merchant entity 104 are provided to the customer for selection.In such implementations, the rules for the selection of the routes forinclusion in the series of routes presented to the customer are based ona pre-determined segment owner, namely the merchant entity.Alternatively, the user may desire to have the algorithm determine alist of routes based on a merchant railroad carrier other than themerchant entity, that is selected by the user.

It is to be appreciated that heuristics rules for biasing the selectionof the routes for inclusion in the series of routes for presentation tothe customer entity 102 may also bias the selection toward rail segmentsbelonging to railway carriers other than the merchant entity. Forinstance, the selection may be biased toward railway carrier with whichthe merchant entity has some strategic alliances. As such, routes thatinclude rail segments belonging to railway carriers having strategicrelationships with the merchant entity 104 are given a preferentialtreatment over routes that include rail segments belonging to railwaycarriers not having strategic relationships with the merchant entity104. As such, the series of routes presented to the customer is a subsetof a set of all possible routes between the origin of the shipment ofgoods and the destination of the shipment of goods.

Once program element 218 has derived a list of routes between the originlocation and the destination location, the list of routes is transmittedover network 106 to customer computing unit 112 on a “route display”page that is downloaded by computing unit 112. The “route display” pageautomatically launches at computing unit 112 to display on the screen ofthe customer computing unit 112 the list of derived routes. The “routedisplay” page is implemented by program element 218 from the merchantcomputing system 120 and automatically launches to aid customer 122.

Shown in FIG. 9 is a non-limiting example of the “route display” page900 launched at the customer computing unit 112. As can be seen, theseries of routes is displayed in the form of a table, with each routepresented as a row, showing each junction in the route as well as themerchant railroad carrier used for transportation. It is within thescope of the invention for the “route display” page 900 to indicate thedistance between each junction and the total distance for each route. Itshould be noted that the route is divided into segments, each segmentbeing the trip between two junctions.

Customer 122 may select a desired route from the list of routesdisplayed through an input device such as a pointing device, keyboard,touch sensitive surface, speech recognition unit or other suitable inputdevice. In the specific example shown in FIG. 9, the customer selectsand submits the choice of route simply by selecting either the “route 1”button 902 or the “route 2” button 904. Alternatively, the customerselects and submits the choice of route simply by selecting the route onthe graphical representation of the geographical map 906.

Optionally, the user interface provides an option allowing the user torequest the merchant system to effect the route selection on the basisof a certain criteria such as cost, distance and time.

The “route display” page 900 includes routing information to direct theroute selection of customer 122 to the merchant entity 104.

Based on the customer's choice of route, the merchant computing system120 is able to determine the distance (miles or km or other unit ofdistance) between the chosen origin location and the chosen destinationlocation.

Equipment Selection (Step 5000)

In a specific example of implementation, after the customer has selecteda route from the list of routes provided by the merchant entity 104, an“equipment selection” page 1001 is automatically launched at customercomputing unit 112. “Equipment selection” page 1001 is implemented byprogram element 218 of merchant computing system 120 and is transmittedto the customer computing unit 112 over network 106. A non-limitingexample of the “equipment selection” page 1001 is shown in FIG. 10. The“Equipment selection” page 1001 in accordance with this non-limitingexample of implementation is in the form of a graphical user interfacedisplayed on the screen of the customer computing unit 112. As can beseen, the “equipment selection” page 1001 includes customer-modifiabledata fields 1002 relating to the equipment selection and, optionally,customer-modifiable data fields 1004 relating to chargeable services.The customer-modifiable data fields 1002 enable the user to select thetype of railcar to transport the desired commodity from the originlocation to the destination location. The customer-modifiable datafields 1004 enable the user to select the desired services. It will beapparent that certain chargeable services will be automatically selectedby the merchant system on the basis of the commodities being transportedand on the basis of the type of equipment being used.

The customer modifiable data fields 1002 and 1004 may be comprised oftext boxes that allow the customer to type in the desired choices or,alternatively, and as shown in FIG. 10, the customer-modifiable datafields are dropdown selection boxes 1006 that include choices ofequipment and chargeable services available to the user. Other suitableformats of customer modifiable data fields are also within the scope ofthe present invention. The choice of railcar to be used includes, but isnot limited to, a gondola car, a tanker car, a flatbed car, a boxcar, acentral beam car for logs, a grain car, a railcar for hazardousmaterials a refrigerated a hopper car and a covered hopper car amongstothers.

The customer is enabled to enter information at the customer computingunit 112 about the ownership of at least one rail car that will be usedfor transporting the shipment of goods. Specifically, the customer isenabled to select the desired ownership of the railcars for thetransportation service.

In a first non-limiting example of implementation, customer-modifiabledata fields 1002 identify a list of railcars associated to respectiveowners. The user selects the railcar type jointly with the railcar ownerby editing the customer-modifiable data fields 1002. In a secondnon-limiting example of implementation, for each selected railcar type,the user is permitted to select a railcar owner from a list of railcarowners having the selected railcar type. This may be effected byproviding an additional customer-modifiable data field (not shown inFIG. 10) to enable the user to select a railcar owner from a list ofrailcar owners. Optionally, entries in the list of equipment owners maybe enabled/disabled on the basis of the railcar already selected by theuser in field 1002. For instance, if a flatbed railcar is selected andonly carrier 1 and carrier 3 own flatbed railcars, then only carrier 1and carrier 3 will be enabled such that the customer may only selectcarrier 1 or carrier 3.

Advantageously, by allowing the customer to select the owner of theequipment, the customer can have the option to select equipment owned bythe merchant entity 104, by a railway carrier other than the merchantentity, or by the customer himself. The selection of equipment owner mayresult in reduced costs in the transportation service.

As a non-limiting feature of the electronic railway pricequotation/ordering system 100, the merchant computing system 120includes, as part of program element 218, a product configurator programelement to customize the “equipment selection” page based on theselections previously made by the customer. For example, the productconfigurator program element is able to form a basic pool of railcarsand is further able to implement a filter for filtering the basic poolof railcars based on one or more filtering criteria to produce afiltered pool of railcars. The filtering criteria can be such things astype of railcar, type of commodity or goods, route chosen, ownership ofthe railcars etc. . . . In addition, the filtering criteria can beextracted from the customer database 222, or any of the other databasesdisclosed above. The program element 218 is able to deliver the filteredpool of railcars to the customer's computing unit 112, and the customeris able to select at the computer unit 112 one or more railcars from thefiltered pool of railcars. As will be described further on in thespecification, the price quote for the transportation service selectedby the customer will be based at least in part on one or morecharacteristics of the railcars selected by the customer.

In a specific implementation, the product configurator program elementprovides a set of filter modules including an equipment type filtermodule, a route filter module and an equipment ownership filter moduleamongst others.

The equipment type filter module processes a list of available equipmenttypes on the basis of the commodity selected by the customer on the“railway transportation ordering” page 700 (shown in FIG. 7) in order torelease a list of equipment types suitable for transporting the selectedcommodities. The suitable equipment types are presented for selection incustomer modifiable field 1002. For example, if a customer has indicatedon the “railway transportation ordering” page that the commodity to betransported is a petroleum based product, the equipment type filtermodule conditions the “equipment selection” page such that thecustomer-modifiable data fields only provide the user with the abilityto select equipment (railcars) that can transport a petroleum basedproduct. As such, the choice of a flat bed railcar, or a hopper will notbe made available to the customer.

The route filter module of the product configurator processes a list ofavailable equipment types on the basis of the route selected by the useron the “route display” page 900 (shown in FIG. 9) in order to release alist of equipment types suitable to be transported on all the segmentsof the selected route. This is particularly advantageous when certainsegments of the route are not rated to support certain types ofrailcars, or support railcars weighing more than a certain amount. Thesuitable equipment types are presented for selection in customermodifiable field 1002.

The equipment ownership filter module of the product configuratorprocesses a list of available equipment types on the basis of the ownerof the equipment. In a first non-limiting example, the list of equipmentis conditioned on the basis of the owners of the segments of the routeselected by the user on the “route display” page 900. For example, ifthe user selects a route that includes segments owned by two differentrailway carriers, it is within the scope of the invention for thecustomer to be able to chose to use either of the first carrier'sequipment, or the second carrier's equipment. This is particularlyadvantageous when the railway carrier provides a discounted rate when acustomer uses a rail segment and equipment owned by that railwaycarrier.

In a second non-limiting example, the list of equipment is conditionedon the basis of the customer profile associated with the customer. Forexample, the equipment ownership filter module is operative to processthe equipment database 223 to identify equipment associated to thecustomer presently using the railway price quotation/ordering system100. Where suitable equipment owned by the customer has been identifiedby searching the equipment database 226, or the customer database 222,to extract information regarding equipment owned by the customer, theequipment ownership filter module releases a list of equipment owned bythat customer causing the equipment presented in the dropdown selectionbox 1006 to include the equipment owned by the customer. The dropdownbox 1006 may optionally include equipment owned by others. In such acase, an ordered list of equipment may be presented with the equipmentowned by the customer preceding equipment owned by other customers. Thisis particularly advantageous when the customer owns equipment and isable to obtain a discounted rate for the railway transportation servicewhen using his/her own equipment.

In a third non-limiting example, the list of equipment is conditioned onthe basis of the equipment owned by the merchant entity 104. Forexample, the equipment ownership filter module is operative to processthe equipment database 226 to identify equipment associated the merchantentity 104. Where suitable equipment owned by the merchant entity 104has been identified, the equipment ownership filter module releases alist of equipment owned by the merchant entity 104 causing the equipmentpresented in the dropdown selection box 1006 to include the equipmentowned by the merchant entity 104. The dropdown box 1006 may optionallyinclude equipment owned by others. In such a case, an ordered list ofequipment may be presented with the equipment owned by the merchantentity preceding equipment owned by other railway carriers. This isparticularly advantageous when the merchant entity owns equipment and itis desired that the merchant entity's equipment be favored over that ofother railway carriers when using railway price quotation/orderingsystem 100.

The above described filter modules are used in combination to providethe user with a list of suitable equipment types for the transportationservice. For example, the equipment type filter module is first appliedto the list of all possible railcars to eliminate railcars that areunsuitable to carry the commodity selected by the user which results ina first subset of equipment. The first subset of equipment is thenprocessed by the equipment ownership filter module to order the firstsubset of equipment such that equipment owned by the merchant entity isdisplayed to the user preceding equipment owned by other railwaycarriers.

As described above, the “equipment selection” page 1001 optionallyincludes data fields that enable the user to select customizedchargeable services 1004 in addition to the standard default chargeableservices associated with any given railway transportation service. As anon-limiting example of implementation, and as shown in FIG. 10, thecustomer modifiable data field is a drop down box 1008 listingchargeable services available to the customer 122. Chargeable servicesinclude such items as handling goods, mounting and dismounting ofcontainers, loading, unloading, customs inspection, demurrage and thelike. A list of chargeable services is described in U.S. Pat. No.6,061,667, issued on May 9, 2000 to Danford-Klein et al., the contentsof which are incorporated herein by reference. If the “equipmentselection” page 1001 does not include data fields enabling the customerto select chargeable services, or if the customer does not wish toselect any additional chargeable services, the merchant computing unit120 will generate a price quote based on the use of default chargeableservices. The default chargeable services are based at least in part onthe commodity being transported and on the type of railcar used for thetransportation service. For example, if the commodity being transportedis petroleum and a tanker car is used, then chargeable servicesassociated to the cleaning of the tanker car will be applicable to thetransportation service.

Once the customer has indicated the desired equipment and chargeableservices in the customer modifiable data fields, the information issubmitted to the merchant entity 104. The “equipment selection” page1001 facilitates the communication between customer 122 and merchantentity 104. The “equipment selection” page includes the necessaryrouting information to direct the information over the network 106 tothe merchant computing system 120. The customer submits the informationentered into the “equipment selection” page to the merchant entity 104over network 106 through an input device such as a pointing device,keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech recognition unit or othersuitable input device. In the specific example shown in FIG. 10, thecustomer selects the “submit” button 1010 located at the base of the“equipment selection” page in order to submit the entered information tothe merchant entity 104.

Computation of Price Quote (Step 6000)

The information obtained from the user through the “railwaytransportation ordering” page 700, the “route display” page 900 and the“equipment selection” page 1001 is received and processed by themerchant computing system 120 to generate a price quote for thetransportation service selected by the customer.

In a non-limiting implementation, with reference to FIG. 2 b, programelement 218 of the merchant computing system 120 includes a pricingengine module operative to calculate a price quote for thetransportation service selected by the customer. The pricing enginemodule uses data elements included within the customer database 222, therouting database 224, the equipment database 226, the commodity database228 and a series of pricing equations (see equations 1-6 below) in orderto calculate a price quote for the services selected by the customer.

The processor 212 of the merchant computing system 120 accesses thedatabases described above in order to access data elements to be used inthe pricing equations.

It is within the scope of the invention for the pricing engine module tocompute a price for the transportation of goods based on a route havingat a first segment, and a second segment, wherein the goods aretransported on the first segment by a mode of transportation other thana train, and the goods are transported on the second segment by a train.The pricing engine module computes the price of the goods on the routebased at least in part on the basis of characteristics of the firstsegment entered by the customer and characteristics of the secondsegment entered by the user. Characteristics of the first segment andsecond segment of the routes can be entered by the user in the “railwaytransportation ordering” page, the “route display” page, and the“equipment selection” page. For example, based at least in part on theinformation entered by the customer about the origin of the firstsegment, and information identifying the location of the train station,the merchant entity 104 can determine that transportation by truckingwill be required. Trucking charges for the first segment can be based onthe information about origin and destination entered by the customer.Based on this information, the puce engine module can assess thedistance between the two locations and can compute the trucking chargesbased on the assessed distance.

The computation of the price will be described with reference to FIG. 11of the drawings. At step 1100, the pricing engine module receives theinformation obtained from the user including commodity type, commodityweight, railcar type and selected route. At step 1102, the pricingengine processes the commodity type, commodity weight and railcar typeto derive the number railcars required for transporting the commodity.To calculate the number of railcars required to transport the commodityspecified by the customer, the pricing engine makes use of total weightof the commodity and the commodity type specified by the user throughthe “railway transportation ordering” page 700 as well as the weightcarrying capacity of the railcar selected by the user. In order toobtain the weight carrying capacity of the railcar selected by the user,the pricing engine accesses the equipment database 226 to locate theentry that corresponds to the railcar selected by the user. The pricingengine then computes the number of railcars required. Mathematically,the number of railcars required may be expressed as follows:

$\begin{matrix}{{\#\mspace{14mu}{railcars}\mspace{14mu}{required}} = \frac{{total}\mspace{14mu}{weight}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{commodity}}{{capacity}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{selected}\mspace{14mu}{railcar}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 1}\end{matrix}$

The number of railcars required is rounded up to the nearest wholenumber.

Once the pricing engine has calculated the number of railcars required,the line haul price for each segment of the route is calculated at step1104.

The price of the railway service is based at least in part on the typeof commodity or goods being transported. As such, the pricing enginesearches commodity database 228 for an entry corresponding to the STCCof the commodity specified by the customer. Once the corresponding entryis found, the associated cost per distance data element (STCC $/mile) isextracted. Following this, the pricing engine searches equipmentdatabase 226 to locate the railcar selected by the user and extracts anassociated ownership factor associated to the selected railcar. As such,the cost of the shipment of goods is based at least in part on theownership of the railcars selected by the customer. As shown in table 3,the ownership factor is a function of the railcar and of the customermaking the request. Table 3 is reproduced below for the user'sconvenience.

TABLE 3 Equipment database Cost Equip- Carrying Ownership Chargeable perment Capacity Ownership Factor services mile Flatbed 2 tons Merchant 1for all Cleaning 15.95 Entity Unloading Flatbed 1.5 tons  Customer .5for Cleaning 15.95 2 “Customer 2” Unloading 1 for everyone else Flatbed2 tons Railway 0.8 for Cleaning 15.95 Carrier “Customer 1” Unloading 21.5 for everyone else Tanker 5 tons Merchant 1 Cleaning 20.00 EntityUnloading Tanker 3 tons Customer .5 for Cleaning 20.00 1 “Customer 1”Unloading 1 for everyone else Boxcar 2 tons Merchant 1 Cleaning 5.95Entity Unloading Boxcar 3.5 tons  Customer .75 for Cleaning 5.95 3“Customer 3” Unloading 1 for everyone else Hopper 6 tons Merchant 1Cleaning 17.99 Entity Unloading

Once the corresponding equipment factor has been identified, for eachsegment of the route, the pricing engine searches the routing database224 to identify the owner of the segment and the distance associated tothe segment. The pricing engine then computes the base line-haul pricefor each segment. The calculation of the base line haul price for agiven segment can be expressed mathematically as follows:

$\begin{matrix}{{{Base}\mspace{14mu}{Line}\mspace{14mu}{haul}\mspace{14mu}{price}_{segment}} = {\left( {{stcc}_{\$/{distance}}*{distance}_{segment}} \right) + \left( {{stcc}_{\$/{weight}}*{weight}*{equipment}\mspace{14mu}{ownership}\mspace{14mu}{factor}} \right)}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 2}\end{matrix}$where stcc_($/distance) is the cost per distance data element associatedto the commodity being transported, distance_(segment) is the length ofthe current segment, stcc_($/weight) is the cost per unit weightassociated to the commodity being transported, weight is the weight ofthe commodity being transported in the current railcar and “equipmentownership factor” is the ownership factor associated to the railcar usedto transport the commodity. The above computation allows providing aprice for the transportation of a commodity that is conditioned on theownership of the equipment used to transport the commodity. In additionthe above computation allows providing a price for the transportation ofa commodity that is conditioned on the route selected by the user. Inlight of the above, it will be readily apparent to the person skilled inthe art that other suitable equations for computing a Base Line-haulprice for a segment may also be used without detracting from the spiritof the invention.

Although the equipment ownership factor has been shown to be a separatefactor in equation 2, it is within the scope of the invention for theownership factor to be incorporated within either one, or both, of thestcc_($/distance) and stcc_($/weight) factors. It should also beappreciated that the factors used in the equations, such asstcc_($/distance) and stcc_($/weight) do not have to be fixed values andcan instead be functions of such variables as distance and weight. In anon-limiting example of implementation, the stcc_($/distance) factorused in equation 2 can be a certain value for a predetermined distancesuch as 500 km, and can then drop by an incremental amount for eachadditional 100 km traveled. It is within the scope of the invention forall the factors used in the equations described herein to be a functionof other factors. Such variations in the factors used in the equationsdisclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Alternatively, the base line haul price may be a flat rate fortransportation of a railcar over the segment.

Optionally, where an ownership factor is associated to the segment, theLine Haul Price_(segment) is conditioned in the basis of the segmentownership factor identified in the routing database 224. Mathematically,this may be expressed as follows:Line Haul Price_(segment)=Base line-haul price_(Segment)×segmentownership_(factor)  Equation 3

The above computation allows providing a price for the transportation ofa commodity that is conditioned on the ownership of the segment of theroute used to transport the commodity. In light of the above, it will bereadily apparent to the person skilled in the art that other suitableequations for computing a Base Line-haul price for a segment may also beused without detracting from the spirit of the invention.

On the basis of the above, a line-haul price for each segment iscalculated.

Following this, at step 1106, the pricing engine calculates the price oftransporting one railcar carrying the desired commodities from theorigin location to the destination location specified by the customer.In a non-limiting example, the price per railcar is expressed as the sumof the line haul rate and chargeable services charged. The calculationof the price of transporting one railcar from the origin location to thedestination location specified by the user can be expressedmathematically as follows:Prices_($/railcar)=Σ[(line haul price_(merchant segment))*BU_(coeff origin SPLC) *BU _(coeff destination SPLC)]+Σ[line haulprice_(NON merchant segment)]+Σ[chargeable services]  Equation 4

Where Σ[chargeable services] is the sum of the prices for chargeableservices (default and user selected), the BU_(OriginSPLC) and theBU_(DesitinationSPLC) represent a charge levied for the origin anddestination SPLC's. In a non-limiting implementation, the chargeableservice price may be obtained by a rate lookup in a table of prices forchargeable services. The table of prices is stored in the data segment220 of memory unit 216 (shown in FIG. 2 b). The rate of a chargeableservice may be a function of a number of parameters including the typeof chargeable service, the commodity being transported, the location ofthe chargeable service to be rendered, the customer profile and theequipment (railcar) being used. Mathematically, this may be expressed asfollows:Chargeable service rate=RatePrice[Service,Commodity,Location_(splc),Customer_(ccid),Equipment]  Equation5

Once the price per railcar has been calculated (equation 4) and thenumber of railcars required to transport the quantity of commodity hasbeen calculated (equation 1), at step 1108 the price quote for thetransportation service selected by the customer can be obtained bymultiplying the price per car by the number of cars. Mathematically,this can be expressed as follows:price quote=Price_($/railcar)*number of railcars required  Equation 6

The pricing engine then releases the computed price quote.

Marketing Options and Adjustment of Price Quote (Step 7000)

Once an initial price quote has been calculated by the pricing engine,the initial price quote can either be submitted to the customer over thenetwork 106, or alternatively can be processed by a marketing engineimplemented by program element 218. The marketing engine allowsmodifying the price generated by the pricing engine on the basis ofvarious criteria including, but not limited to, the customer's profileand a particular marketing campaign.

In a first non-limiting example, the initial price quote is adjusted bythe marketing engine on the basis of the customer profile associated tothe customer. As previously described, registered customers of themerchant entity are associated to customer profiles which include dataelements indicative of discount rates to which the associated customeris eligible. The marketing engine is operative to interact with customerdatabase 222 to identify an entry in the customer database 222associated to the customer using the price quotation/ordering system100, in order to extract a discount data element associated to thecustomer. For example, if the customer is a registered customer, themarketing engine accesses the customer database 222 and determines ifthe customer is eligible for a discount. If the customer who submittedthe transportation service quote request is associated to a certaindiscount rate based on, for example, the fact that the merchant entityhas decided that that specific customer is a valued customer, then theinitial price quote determined by the pricing engine is adjusted basedon the discount rate associated to that customer. Mathematically thismay be expressed as follows:price quote=initial price quote*(1−discount rate)  Equation 7

It is to be appreciated that the discount may be expressed in terms ofabsolute dollar amount or absolute dollar amount per car. Mathematicallythis may be expressed as follows:price quote=initial price quote−discount  Equation 8

It is within the scope of the invention for different discount rates tobe associated to different customers. For example, the profile ofcustomer 1 within the customer database 222, may indicate that customer1 is eligible for a 10% discount rate on all quotes, while the profileof customer 2 may indicate that customer 2 is eligible for a 20%discount rate on all quotes. Alternatively, different discount rates maybe assigned to a same customer dependent upon the commodities beingtransported, the type of railcar being used, the date of thetransportation service, the origin or transportation, the destination oftransportation, the distance of transportation or any other suitablecriteria such as time data. The time data can include a time of day, aweek, a month or a time of year such as a season. As such, the discountdata element is associated to a plurality of discount eligibilitycriteria, such as specific customer, and service requested by thecustomer. For example, the profile of customer 1 may indicate thatcustomer 1 is eligible for a 10% discount on all quotes relating to thetransportation of wheat and no discount for the transportation of anyother commodity. In another example, the profile of customer 1 mayindicate that customer 1 is eligible for a 10% discount on all quoteswhere a flatbed car is used and 15% where a refrigerated railcar is usedand no discount for any other equipment type.

In a second non-limiting implementation, the initial price quote isadjusted by the marketing engine on the basis of a particular marketingcampaign for which the railway transportation service selected by thecustomer qualifies. In this specific implementation, the data segment220 of memory unit 216 (shown in FIG. 2B) further includes a database ofpromotional events (shown below) including a plurality of entries, eachentry in the database of promotional events being associated to acertain promotional event. Entries in the database of promotional eventscan include such things as origin locations, destination locations,distances, types of equipment, type of commodity and time data. The timedata can include a time of clay, a week, a month or a time of year suchas a season. A season can be a calendar season such as spring, summer,fall and winter, or alternatively a season can be any period of thecalendar year defined by the merchant entity. For example, the merchantentity may define the period between November and February as a “hightraffic” season. The entries in the database of promotional events aremodifiable by account manager at the merchant entity 104 such as toallow the promotional events to be easily modified. Each entry includesa plurality of fields including the criteria required for a customer tobe eligible for the promotional events as well as the applicablediscount. A non-limiting example of implementation of a database ofpromotional events is shown below:

TABLE 5 Database of Promotional Events Criteria Applicable Discount 1.Use of refrigerated cars 10% 2. In January 1. Origin of thetransportation in California 100$/car 1. Use of flatbed cars 2.Destination of the transportation in California  5% 1. Use of flatbedcars in February 200$/car 1. Transportation of petroleum products 25% 2.February 3. Distance over 500 km

The database of promotional events maps information identifying discounteligibility criterion to a discount data element. A marketing engine isoperative to interact with the database of promotional events toidentify one or more promotions for which the customer, or thetransportation service selected by the customer qualifies. The marketingengine is further operative to identify at least one entry in thedatabase of promotional events associated to a certain discounteligibility criterion and to a certain discount data element. In anon-limiting example, if the customer qualifies for a discounted priceunder one marketing promotion, the initial price quote is adjustedaccording to the discount rate or discount amount described in themarketing promotion. As can be seen, the database of promotional eventsincludes entries indicative of at least two discount eligibilitycriteria. For example, in order to be eligible for a discount or 10%,the discount eligibility criteria of “use of refrigerated cars”, as wellas “transportation within the month of January” must be satisfied. Inaddition, if the customer qualifies for a discounted price under two ormore marketing promotions, the initial price quote is adjusted accordingto the discount rate or discount amount that is the most advantageous tothe customer. In an alternative implementation, if the customerqualifies for a discounted price under two or more marketing promotions,the initial price quote is adjusted according to all the applicablemarketing promotions.

For example, the database of promotional events indicates that themerchant entity 104 is offering a discount wherein during the month ofFebruary a 25% discount is applied to the transportation of petroleumproducts that are being transported over 500 km. If the railwaytransportation service requested by the customer satisfies thesecriteria, the railway transportation service is eligible for thisdiscount and the initial price quote generated by the pricing enginewill be adjusted accordingly.

As can be seen from equations 7 and 8, the price quote is computed atleast in part on the basis of a discount data element derived fromeither a marketing campaign, a customer profile, or a combination of thetwo.

Once the initial price quote has been adjusted based on customerprofile, or on the basis of a particular marketing campaign, if eligiblefor either, the price quote (i.e. the price for the shipment of goods)is transmitted over the computer network 106 to be displayed on thescreen of the customer computing unit 112. The price may be transmittedto the customer computing unit 112 for display via the graphical userinterface which is implemented by program element 218 from the merchantcomputing system 120 and automatically launches to aid customer 122.Alternatively, the price may be transmitted to the customer computingunit 112 via e-mail, snail-mail or any other suitable manner implementedby program element 218.

Although it has been disclosed above (equations 7 and 8) that an initialprice quote is modified on the basis of a discount data element todetermine a discounted price for a shipment of goods, it should beexpressly understood that the discount rate may be incorporated into anyof the above equations such that the initial price quote calculated isindicative of a discounted rate without having to be modified. Forexample, it is within the scope of the invention for the merchant entity104, upon establishing that the customer is eligible for a discountedrate, to modify each factor within the above described equations suchthat the initial price computed is indicative of a discounted rate andit is not necessary to adjust the initial price quote.

Display Price Quote (Step 8000) and Accept, Reject or Save Price Quote(Step 9000)

The price quote is received at the customer computing unit 112 and isdisplayed on a “price display” page that is preferably in the form of agraphical user interface, and the customer either accepts or rejects thequote. Each quote is typically associated to a certain validity periodafter which the quote is no longer active. A typical validity period hasa duration of 2 weeks, however, shorter or lengthier validity periodsmay be used without detracting from the spirit of the invention.

In a non-limiting example of implementation, when applicable, both theinitial price quote and the discounted price quote are displayed to theuser in order to allow the latter to view the savings.

In another non-limiting example of implementation, when applicable, theprice quote is displayed along side advertising for upcoming promotionsoffered by the merchant entity 104.

The “price display” page allows the user to either accept, reject orsave the price quote provided by the merchant entity 104. In anon-limiting implementation, the “price display” page includes a set ofbutton elements associated to “accept”, “reject” or “save” functionswhich may be selected by the user through a pointing device, touchsensitive screen, keyboard, voice recognition unit or other suitableinput device.

If the quote is rejected, the customer's railway transportation order isdeleted from the merchant computing system 120. The customer may submitthrough the network a reason for the rejection. This may be done throughemail, or through writing a message in a pop-up text box that appearswhen the customer rejects the quote. The “price display” page includesthe necessary routing information to direct the message back to themerchant entity 104. The customer may also choose to provide themerchant entity 104 with the reasons for the rejection through alternatemeans such as by telephone or fax.

If the quote is accepted then the order for the railway transportationservice relating to that price quote is submitted to the merchant entity104 and is stored in the memory 206 of the merchant computing system120. In addition, the information related to the price quote is added toa list of quotes that have been previously accepted by that specificcustomer in the customer profile at the merchant computing system 120.The “price display” page includes the necessary routing information todirect the accepted price quote to the merchant entity 104.

Finally, the customer may choose to save the quote and delay respondingto the quote until a later time. In this case, the merchant computingsystem 120 stores in its memory 206, in connection with the specificcustomer, the information related to the price quote and the railwaytransportation service to which the price quote corresponds. The timedelay after which the price quote is no longer valid is also stored. The“price display” page includes the necessary routing information todirect the save message back to the merchant entity 104. Active quotesassociated to given customers are stored on a computer readable storagemedium at the customer-computing unit 112 or at the merchant computingsystem 120 and can be retrieved by the customer through the computernetwork 106. A graphical user interface is also provided to allow acustomer to view the active quotes.

Although the detailed description describes extensively a system forrequesting a price quote for shipping goods by rail via a web basedinterface, other embodiments are possible. For example, user interfacesfor gathering information relating to railway transportation servicesdesired by a customer may be sent to the customer via electronic mail.Likewise, a list of potential routes between a chosen origin anddestination location, and a price quote may also be submitted viaelectronic mail.

Although the above described specific examples of implementationdescribe a railway price quotation/ordering system 100 where thecomputations of the price quote are effected at the merchant computingsystem 120, embodiments of the invention where the price quote iscomputed at the customer computing unit 112 remain within the scope ofthe invention. In such an embodiment, a program element implementing thepricing engine, including any required database information is sent fromthe merchant computing system to the customer computing unit andlaunched at the customer computing unit 112. It will also be apparentthat a program element “route determination algorithm” as well as therouting database may also be implemented at the customer computing unit112, or downloaded at customer computing unit 112 from the merchantcomputing system 120. In such a variant, upon receiving the originlocation and destination location, the program element implementing theroute determination algorithm derives a list of possible routes betweenthe origin location and destination location without requiringinteraction with the merchant computing system 120.

In addition, although the above described specific examples ofimplementation describe the railway price quotation/ordering system 100in a client-server arrangement, an application suitable for operating ona general purpose stand-alone digital computer also remains within thescope of the invention. In such an embodiment, the program element 210and the data 220 described in connection with the merchant computersystem 120 are implemented on a standalone computer.

Although various embodiments have been illustrated, this was for thepurpose of describing, but not limiting, the invention. Variousmodifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art and arewithin the scope of this invention, which is defined more particularlyby the attached claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for a rail transportation companyto obtain particulars from a customer about a shipment of goods and toperform the shipment of goods, said method comprising: a. performing afreight railcar type and a freight railcar ownership selectionoperation, the freight railcar type and the freight railcar ownershipselection operation including an exchange of data between a serverarrangement and a remote customer computer system over a data network,the exchange of data involving an equipment database storing informationabout freight railcars, the information distinguishing between a set offreight railcars owned by the customer and freight railcars owned by oneor more entities other than the customer, the freight railcar type andthe freight railcar ownership selection operation allowing the customerat the customer computer system to direct the rail transportationcompany via a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to use for the shipment afreight railcar of a type selected by the customer and owned by anentity selected by the customer, the freight railcar type and ownershipselection operation including configuring the GUI on the customercomputer system by dynamically modifying an input object of the GUIproviding equipment options the customer can select, the configuring ofthe GUI including: i. displaying on the GUI, at least two freightrailcar type options that the customer can choose from, the at least twofreight railcar type options including a first option which identifies afirst type of freight railcar to be used for the shipment, and a secondoption which identifies a second type of freight railcar to be used forthe shipment which is different from the first type of freight railcar;ii. searching the set of freight railcars owned by the customer in theequipment database for a freight railcar of the type selected by thecustomer; iii. when the search determines that the set of freightrailcars owned by the customer includes a freight railcar of the typeselected by the customer, configuring the GUI to present the customerwith at least two freight railcar ownership options that the customercan choose from, one of the freight railcar ownership optionsidentifying the customer as owner of the freight railcar to be used forthe shipment, another of the freight railcar ownership optionsidentifying an entity other than the customer as owner of the freightrailcar to be used for the shipment; iv. when the search determines thatthe set of freight railcars owned by the customer does not include afreight railcar of the type selected by the customer, configuring theGUI to present the customer with one or more freight railcar ownershipoptions identifying one or more entities other than the customer asowner of the freight railcar to be used for the shipment; b. performingthe shipment by using a freight railcar of the type selected by thecustomer among the freight railcar type options and owned by the entityselected by the customer among the one or more freight railcar ownershipoptions.
 2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the configuring ofthe GUI including omitting from the freight railcar ownership optionsselectable by the customer a selectable freight railcar ownershipoptions identifying the customer as owner of the freight railcar to beused for the shipment.
 3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein thefirst freight railcar type option is in the group of freight railcartypes consisting of boxcar, flatbed car, hopper car, tanker car andgondola car.
 4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the secondfreight railcar type option is in the group of freight railcar typesconsisting of boxcar, flatbed car, hopper car, tanker car and gondolacar.
 5. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein when the set of freightrailcars owned by the customer includes a freight railcar of the typeselected by the user among the freight railcar type options, the anotherof the freight railcar ownership options identifying the railtransportation company as owner of the freight railcar to be used forthe desired shipment.
 6. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein therail transportation company is a first rail transportation company,wherein when the set of freight railcars owned by the customer includesa freight railcar of the type selected by the user among the freightrailcar type options, the another of the freight railcar ownershipoptions identifying a second rail transportation company different fromthe first rail transportation company as owner of the freight railcar tobe used for the desired shipment.
 7. A method as defined in claim 2,wherein the exchange of data further implementing a route selectionoperation between an origin of the shipment and a destination of theshipment, the route selection operation including presenting the uservia the graphical user interface with at least two route options betweenthe origin of the desired shipment and the destination of the desiredshipment, the performing of the desired shipment of good includingperforming the shipment according to the route option selected by theuser.
 8. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the exchange of datafurther implementing a freight railcar service selection operationallowing the user at the customer client system to direct the railtransportation company via the graphical user interface to perform oneor more services on the freight railcar to be used for the desiredshipment, the freight railcar service selection operation presenting theuser via the graphical user interface with a plurality of serviceoptions that the user can chose from, the method further includingperforming the one or more services chosen by the user via the graphicaluser interface on the freight railcar.
 9. A method as defined in claim8, wherein the plurality of service options include at least one serviceoption selected in the group consisting of cleaning the freight railcar,loading the freight railcar, unloading the freight railcar,refrigerating the freight railcar and switching the freight railcar. 10.A method as defined in claim 2, including computing a price for thedesired shipment at least in part on the basis of the entity that ownsthe freight railcars selected by the user.
 11. A method as defined inclaim 10, including using as a factor the freight railcar type selectedby the user during the computing.
 12. A method as defined in claim 2,wherein the equipment database is part of the server arrangement.